VC apologizes for his op-ed suggesting women in tech hide their identities online

John Greathouse, the venture capitalist who wrote a Wednesday op-ed suggesting women in tech would be better off if they hid their identities online, had issued an apology for the story via his Twitter account on Thursday.

"I apologize for the dreadful article I wrote in the WSJ. I told women to endure the gender bias problem rather than acting to fix the problem. I hurt women and I utterly failed to help, which I wholly regret and I apologize for having done. Women have a tough enough time having their voices heard and my insensitive comments only made matters worse. I am truly sorry. - John"

The original post (which you can still read here) suggested that women in tech "create an online presence that obscures their gender," essentially claiming women would be better off in the tech world if they pretended to be men instead.

Greathouse advised women use their initials instead of their real names, not include photos of themselves in their pitch deck, remove photos from their LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, and otherwise pretend they're men. But people immediately took to Twitter to express their displeasure about the piece, disparaging Greathouse and the Wall Street Journal for publishing it in the first place.

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